Early Long Beach Pride Parade organizers faced opposition, death threats

LONG BEACH - Nothing says a gay pride parade like marching in a bulletproof vest.

In the days leading up to the first Long Beach Pride Parade in 1984, Judith Doyle, then president of Long Beach Gay and Lesbian Pride, received death threats - but she didn't relent.

She marched on Ocean Boulevard in a bulletproof vest.

"It was really bad back then," said Vanessa Romain, a 28-year member of Long Beach Pride. Romain also is an Pride executive committee member and vice president of entertainment.

"Another one of our members had his house shot at, and people would throw eggs at people marching in the parade."

Response to the parade, and same-sex relationships, has shifted dramatically. Recent polls find the majority of Americans now favor same-sex marriage, and President Obama gave his endorsement last week.

On Sunday, an estimated 35,000 people will line Ocean Boulevard and cheer hundreds of participants marching under the boulevard's rainbow flags in the 29th annual Long Beach Pride Parade.

The Long Beach Gay and Lesbian Pride Celebration and parade is now the city's second-most-attended event (the three-day Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is first, with 175,000 spectators), as well as the second-largest gay pride event in Southern California (West Hollywood is the largest). It's the nation's fourth-largest gay pride event (behind San Francisco, New York and West Hollywood).

The festival and parade started as an effort by the local gay community to make its own identity while living in the shadow of Los Angeles' pride event.

In 1983, when the festival was still just an idea, then-Pride Vice President Mary Martinez attended a City Council meeting and listened to arguments against the festival.

One city councilman, upset supporters would be watching the parade, said: "I don't want a bunch of queers in the trees."

(By contrast, today there are two openly gay members of the city council, Robert Garcia and Gerrie Schipske.)

The first parade lasted just 30 minutes, and the two-day festival drew 5,000 people to Palm Island, or what is now Marina Green Park.

The festival always has been scheduled the weekend before Memorial Day because the city didn't want it held during the summer season, which begins with Memorial Day weekend.

As a result, the city banned all private events in the park after Memorial Day, Romain said.

When Long Beach Pride applied for a permit the following year for the second parade, it ran into the first of a series of roadblocks.

The city recommended a one-day event. Organizers also were told they needed to come up with $1 million in liability insurance. A national search failed to come up with a company willing to back the event, and the festival was held without a permit.

Pride continued holding the festival without a permit for several years in protest against the city.

But when organizers found out the city waived or reduced the insurance requirement for other groups, Long Beach Pride sued the city, claiming discrimination.

In 1991, after several years of litigation, a Superior Court judge ruled that Long Beach's ordinance permitting the city manager to require liability insurance on the basis of a parade's subject matter was unconstitutional.

In an out-of-court settlement, the city agreed to develop uniform requirements for all groups staging large events.